Friendship One (episode)
Starfleet Command sends Voyager on a special mission to retrieve a 21st century Earth probe which is believed lost in the Delta Quadrant. Summary Teaser :We, the people of Earth, greet you in a spirit of peace and humility. As we venture out of our solar system, we hope to earn the trust and friendship of other worlds. A small craft of some kind flies by at impulse speeds, as "Friendship 1" can be read on its hull. In a small control room on an alien planet, two people are desperately working to identify the craft. It begins transmitting a musical composition, The Four Seasons. They try to locate its position, as they realize it has just begun entering their atmosphere. Act One In astrometrics, Captain Janeway is talking to Starfleet Admiral Hendricks. He instructs her to retrieve the Friendship 1 probe, which Starfleet believes to be in the Delta Quadrant. She convenes a meeting in the briefing room :Captain's Log, stardate 54775.4. We've been searching for five days without any sign of the probe. But we're not about to disappoint Starfleet on our first official assignment in seven years. On the bridge, Harry Kim reports that there are no signs of Friendship 1 in the current search grid. Harry requests to move the search to grid 310 as he has compensated for several solar winds and local anomalies that would have adjusted the probe's trajectory in the Quadrant. They locate a titanium signal in the northern subcontinent of a planet in that grid. In Astrometrics, they are unable to localize the probe as there is a large amount of antimatter radiation. Captain Janeway sends an away team to retrieve the probe. She assigns Chakotay, Tom Paris, Harry Kim, Joseph Carey, and Neelix. They must all get inoculations in Sickbay first. B'Elanna wants to go on the trip as well, but Tom talks her out of it because she is six months pregnant and she and the baby would be breathing a toxic atmosphere. B'Elanna only agrees if Tom agrees to carry the next baby. On the Delta Flyer II, the away team is headed through the upper atmosphere of the planet, where they encounter severe turbulence. When they come through the cloud deck, they notice the planet was inhabited at one point, but it looked as thought it was in the midst of a nuclear winter. As the ship sets down, a man in a suit scans the ship from rocks in the distance. Act Two On the planet, the away team are in EVA suits. Chakotay and Kim discover antimatter missile silos, while inside a cave Paris, Neelix, and Carey find remnants of the probe. Neelix hears something, but Carey can't read any lifesigns on his tricorder. Just then, Paris, Neelix and Carey are ambushed and captured by the Uxali. Chakotay and Kim return to the Flyer, where Kim is attacked by an Uxali scientist. After he stuns the intruder, the Flyer comes under attack from antimatter weapons. Chakotay has no choice but to fly the ship back to Voyager, leaving their three crewmates behind. Janeway is receiving an update from Chakotay when Tuvok contacts her from the Bridge. Tuvok says that they are receiving a subspace transmission from the surface. A man named Verin tells a confused Janeway that she will pay for what Earth did to the planet's people. Verin wants Janeway to take him and his people off the planet or he will kill the away team. He gives Janeway three hours to begin the evacuation. Act Three Janeway tells Tuvok to scan for M-class planets. Janeway and Chakotay head to Sickbay where they talk to the Uxali they stunned on the Delta Flyer. The man, a scientist, says that he was attempting to get information from the Flyer's computers that could undo the damage Earth caused. Janeway asks the scientist to explain how they are responsible for his world's destruction. The scientist says that a containment failure in their power grid destroyed their planet and the technology that was on the probe caused the destruction. The man thinks Voyager is there to allow Earth to conquer it. Back on the planet, Carey has a concussion and Paris asks to treat him. A pregnant woman refuses to allow Paris to use his equipment. During the ensuing conversation, Paris finds that the woman had two boys and a girl, but they were all stillborn. Paris says that the best doctor in the Quadrant is on Voyager, but she stops talking to them. In Astrometrics, Janeway learns the nearest M-class planet is 132 light-years away. This would take 17 trips and nearly 3 years to complete the relocation of the nearly 5500 people on the planet. Janeway won't stop her trip back to Earth for that long. Tuvok states that the only only option may be to rescue the hostages by force. Janeway doesn't want to reinforce the thought that humans are violent unless it's absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, Seven of Nine helps to treat the Uxali scientist by extracting nanoprobes from her bloodstream. Back on the planet, a girl talks to Neelix and Paris. They want to give the girl a toy they found on the planet. Verin hears the toy and snatches it away, thinking it's a weapon. He tells the child to stay away because they're dangerous. Neelix attempts to negotiate with Verin, asking if he can talk to Janeway on his behalf. He shares that his planet was destroyed by the Metreon Cascade on Talax and his family was killed. Verin replies, "I'm sorry about what happened to your family. But don't compare your life to mine," and sends Neelix back to holding. Janeway attempts to further negotiate with Verin. He discusses an alternative to relocating the entire planet's population. She suggests working together with the scientist in Sickbay — a man named Otrin — to have a shorter-term solution as flying to the other planet was too far. Verin still doesn't believe Janeway, as she hasn't given him any reason to trust her. She offers to send a supply of food and medicine in exchange for a hostage. Verin agrees and allows Carey to set up the transport enhancers to transport him off the planet, but before the transporter locks on, Verin shoots him with a disruptor, killing him. Act Four Captain Janeway holds her ground on the bridge, telling Verin that killing one of her crewmen will not make them any more receptive to their demands. When Verin threatens to kill the others, Captain Janeway agrees to transport their people, but says she requires time because the transporters weren't designed to handle large groups. Verin gives her one hour, and ends the transmission. Janeway calls Chakotay to her ready room to begin a plan, immediately. Back in Sickbay, the first phase of Otrin's nanoprobe treatment is working. Seven tells Otrin that the group on the planet need a change in leadership that is more open-minded. The pregnant woman on the planet begins having early contractions. Paris offers to help, where she gives birth to a boy. He isn't breathing. Paris revives him using a cortical stimulator. Meanwhile, The Delta Flyer returns to rescue the crew. Verin thinks Tuvok has beeen captured, but his captor is actually the Doctor. The Doctor hands Tuvok his phaser, and then he stuns everyone with weapons in the room, surprising Neelix and Paris (the Doctor had been dressed as a native but being a hologram protected him from the effects of the radiation and allowed him to play the part). Tuvok and The Doctor rescue Neelix and Paris. Before they beam up, Paris convinces the mother to take her son to Voyager because he won't survive for very long in the atmosphere. The baby is safe in Sickbay. Janeway decides to transport him back to the planet along with a set of food and medical supplies. Neelix and Paris pleads with Janeway to help the people on the planet to make up for what their ancestors on Earth did. In Main Engineering, Otrin performs a successful experiment to remove the antimatter radiation. Janeway offers a plan to use photon torpedoes to eliminate the radiation in the atmosphere. Voyager will be put at extreme risk because it will require low-altitude detonations of the torpedoes and the reaction would expand exponentially. Janeway orders shield modifications to help the ship survive. Back on the planet, Otrin attempts to persuade Verin to let Voyager help, but instead he brings the antimatter warheads on-line to fight back. The group eventually stands behind Otrin and forces Verin to stand down. The group goes outside the cave to find the sky clearing. :Captain's log, supplemental. We've retrieved ''Friendship 1 and resumed our course for the Alpha Quadrant, but the success of our mission had a very high price.'' Chakotay enters Carey's quarters, and finds Captain Janeway looking at a ship-in-a-bottle model of Voyager. Carey only had one nacelle to go before finishing it. Chakotay and Janeway then have a debate about the moral implications of the launchers of Friendship 1. The benefits of exploration don't justify the loss of lives — whether it's millions or just one. Memorable Quotes "The Voth, the Kobali, the Vaadwaur. You've made first contact with more species than any captain since James Kirk." "Well, it helps being the only Starfleet ship within thirty thousand light years." : - Admiral Hendricks and Captain Janeway "From the first time you spoke up in my classroom, I knew you'd go far." "A little farther than I expected, Professor." : - Admiral Hendricks and Captain Janeway "When infiltrating a planet with a toxic atmosphere, it helps to be a hologram." : - The Doctor, to Tuvok, after singlehandedly rescuing the away team. "We, the people of Earth, greet you in a spirit of peace and humility. As we venture out of our solar system, we hope to earn the trust and friendship of other worlds." : - Friendship 1, the recording from the probe. Background Information * The Friendship 1 probe's warp nacelles are reminiscent of those of the Phoenix, and the head of the probe bears a resemblance to the top of the Nomad probe. * This episode marks the return, and the death, of Lieutenant Joe Carey. This is Carey's first "present" appearance on the series since . He also appeared in and , however, his scenes in both of those episodes were based in 2371. * Producers came up with a list of recurring crewmen to kill off for this episode. Ensigns Vorik and Samantha Wildman were also among them. * Bari Hochwald previously played Elizabeth Lense in the DS9 episode . Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 7.11, . *As part of the VOY Season 7 DVD collection. Links and References Guest Stars *Josh Clark as Joe Carey *Bari Hochwald as Brin *John Rosenfeld as Technician #1 *John Prosky as Otrin *Ashley Edner as Yun *Wendy Speake as Technician #2 *Peter Dennis as Admiral Hendricks *Ken Land as Verin *David Ghilardi as Alien Lieutenant References antimatter; antimatter missile; antimatter radiation; atmospheric processor; cardio-stimulator; circuit analyzer; Cochrane, Zefram; computer chip; Delta Flyer II; disulfide; environmental suit; fetal resonance scan; Friendship 1; gas giant; genocide; gravimetric shear; hadrosaur; holo-camera; ionic interference; isolytic reaction; isorem; Kirk, James; Kobali; lung; magnesite; metreon cascade; millijoule; model; nanoprobe; nuclear winter; nucleonic particle; particle scanner; photon torpedo; probe; radiation poisoning; solar wind; Starfleet Corps of Engineers; stratosphere; thermal eddy; titanium; transceiver; translation matrix; transport enhancer; United Earth Space Probe Agency; Vaadwaur; Vivaldi; Voth |next= }} Category:VOY episodes de:Friendship One fr:Friendship One nl:Friendship One (aflevering)